It's that time again as a new Skylanders game is being showcased at Activision's E3 booth. The game is called Skylanders Superchargers and it introduces vehicles into the game.
Why do Skylanders need vehicles? Well Kaos has a brand new weapon called the Doomstation of Ultimate Doomstruction and you'll need the vehicles to get to the weapon and stop Kaos.
The traditional Skylanders game play is still here with a Diablo like experience. You can use any of the 300+ Skylanders from the past sets in Superchargers and even the traps from Trap Team. You won't be able to play the villains, but you'll get a temporary powerful weapon for your vehicle of that particular trap's element. Also, any villain trapped will net you a skystone.
Some old favorites will be reimagined for Superchargers so they might have the same name as pas characters, they will have new abilities.
With the vehicles, you'll be given a whole new way to explore the world of Skylanders. There are 20 vehicles in the sea, land, and air range so expect cars, submarines, helicopters, jets, and more. Each vehicle has upgrades that you can find, just like Skylanders themselves and all the mods can affect certain stats on each vehicle. You can further increase the abilities of the vehicles with different mods by pairing it up with a specific Skylander. Each vehicle has one specific Skylander, when used, will supercharge the vehicle giving it new abilities and new mods. Any Skylander can drive any vehicle, but there will be 20 specific characters that are tied one to one to a specific vehicle that will supercharge it.
You'll only need a land vehicle to complete the main story and that's always included in the starter pack. Of course, there will be other areas only available for specific types of vehicles, but right off the bat you can go from start to finish with the included toys.
When playing with two players, one will control the driving while another controls the weapons. Yes, you can only have one vehicle in play at a time and the portal supports a single vehicle and two Skylanders.
With the toys, they have added articulation when it makes sense such as wheels spinning on the cars and the tail fin moving on one of the submarines. They really wanted you to not just play with the vehicles in the game, but in real life as well.
And for the first time, Skylanders will have Nintendo characters to play with. On the Wii U, Wii, and 3DS, Bowser and Donkey Kong will be an option. The starter kits will include one of the pair of characters and their specific vehicle. No, you can't use them in another console version, but they did look fun to play with.
Bowser had a big giant hammer that he swings around with furious anger and he can call in Koopas to fight for him. They can even be turned into shells and smacked around to cause damage. Donkey Kong uses a barrel to attack, either by throwing it at them or utilizing it as a weapon.
As with the Skylanders, the two Nintendo characters can supercharge their specific vehicle when paired together. Bowser's plane gets a more wooden look with his face on the front while Diddy Kong makes an appearance on the side of his car.
Something really cool about the Nintendo characters is that they double as Amiibos. Just twist the base and you can use them in your Nintendo games. Twist back and you'll be able to pop them into Superchargers. It worked flawlessly and I thought it was pretty cool to see Bowser and Donkey Kong in Skylanders.
Skylanders Superchargers looks like a lot of fun and the addition of vehicles takes it to a whole new level. Having backwards compatibility with every Skylander in past sets is great to see and the new toys look as amazing as ever. You can look to pick up Skylanders Superchargers in stores on September 20th for all console systems.
